Can I negotiate a hotel's food and beverage minimum?

Question

I am planning my wedding for a Saturday in August of 2009. I have been to quite a few venues that have a food and beverage minimum. Are these fees negotiable? Has anyone negotiated with a hotel for a lower minimum?

Especially when, for example I have 150 guests, and their meals and alcohol per person is $100. That comes out to $15,000 total. The hotel said their food and beverage minimum is $20,000. So now I have to "find" another $5,000 in food to buy just to meet their minimum. I think that's ridiculous.

Any suggestions on how to approach this with the venue?

Answer 1

YES!  Do negotiate!  I did it and it worked so well.  The best way I managed was go to the venues and ask to see the person in charge of weddings (make sure this person is able to make decisions for him/herself!).  Then tell them you will be spending X amount for each person, what can they provide for that cost.  Then, get things going and say, that does include tax and tip, right?  I also found that getting married on a Sunday saved us over $10,000.  We originally were going to marry on a Saturday and still would have got great deals, but saving ten grand was a little more than the push we needed to move the day!

Oh, and one more thing, I kept asking them to include stuff until they finally said no.  I got the wedding cake, grooms cake, bridal suite & guest discounts in the hotel (if you're in a hotel - ours was in a famous restaurant that the hotel next to it bought - you should EXPECT to get a free room for the night and discounts for guests),   full service with waiters in gloves serving the hors d'ouvres, food (and nice food - not carrot sticks and cocktail sausages! - we had duck and etouffe), and open bar (I got them to even include better alcohol and a spare bartender).  They finally stopped at giving my guests free parking (it was in the middle of a city, right in the tourist area where parking runs $20/car).  But I did get a discount for my guests.  I had 120 guests and my reception cost $3,000.  

Look for any connections you may have.  Our florist was my mom's friend and she only charged for the cost of the flowers (which was still expensive because they were fresh flowers that were also hand-painted).  We had a live band, but went with my mom's friend's son who was at a music school (one that's super hard to get into) and had a jazz band with some of his classmates.  Though they were young, they only charged $150.  Everyone raved how they were the best band ever seen at a wedding.  I interviewed photographers and finally found one that met with my style.  She was $750, but I negotiated with her so that price would include my wedding album set as well as me buying the copyrights to my photos.  That meant that I got the CD with the pictures to copy and give to family so they could just develop the pictures as they wanted.  It also meant I was able to get my own extras for photos I didn't want to just hide away in the album.  This costs less than 50 cents a photo compared to around $5.  It really really really saves a ton of money for you and family.

Our honeymoon, flights to Europe, wedding rings (we got platinum and mine has channel set diamonds from Mondera.com), wedding day rental of a Rolls Royce, church/officiant donation, reception, flowers, music, food, staff (including 2 bar tenders and 3 white-gloved waiters), photos (including a whole extra set of pictures), dress (ok, I spent over a $1,000 here - oops!), tux (just a rental), all our gifts for wedding party - the whole shabang- cost us $8,000.

Answer 2

Find a new place that's really unheard of, well i never heard that!

Def find another place

Answer 3

Honestly, I don't think that these places will negotiate on their food and beverage minimums - if they did that for you then they would have to do that for everyone.

The only thing that I would suggest is to ask them if there is something that you can do to get the food and beverage minimum down - like having the reception in the morning, having it in a different room, having it on a different day, etc.

The place that I had my reception at had a $15,000 food and beverage minimum, which I thought was outrageous. We asked what we could do and they said if we used a room other than the main ballroom then the food and beverage minimum would be considerably less...so that is what we did and in my opinion the room that we got was much nicer than the main ballroom.  

Answer 4

There is always room to negotiate with vendors. You just have to do your research and know what other vendors are offering and including in their packages/price lists. Find out what costs extra.

Don't sound too excited when you go talk to someone. You have more leverage if they think you're indifferent and willing to walk away if you don't like what they offer.

If you're not used to negotiating in a sales environment, go to a few flea markets or garage sales and practice different styles until you find one that works best for you.

There are trades possible for instance, you might be willing to add one of their services, like if they have a salon, you would be willing to have your bridal party to hair/makeup there if they take off a certain amount off the food/beverage bill.

Always talk to the highest up person as possible in the decision making process. Certainly some places give their staff some creative room for dealing with customers, but the managers in charge of sales/booking are more likely to work something out with you to keep your business.

Figure out what you are using to negotiate with will end up costing you less or more.

Not all hotels/resort catering departments operate the way you describe. And many offer different arrangements depending on your menu etc. Like sit down dinner vs, buffet or cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, and what time of day etc. For instance on our buffet dinner menu that we offer for weddings (at the resort I work at) we have a 25 guest minimum with buffet menu options ranging from around 30 -44 dollars per person. There are of course other options.

I would just keep phoning around. But do your negotiating in person. And go together as a couple, not alone. Easier to negotiate together than one on one.

Also ask about different bar options. Open bar is not the only option. Limited bar is similar but would be cheaper, you can have waiters come around instead or close the bar for dinner and just offer bottles of wine at the tables maybe. Talk to them about different options. No hotel of any scale is going to only have one set option for you. They would never stay full and make money that way.

Good luck and congrats on your wedding!

Answer 5

If you are paying for the foods and drinks then it is up to you to decide what you are willing to do.

Answer 6

the hotels make their money from the food and beverages dept. I know cuz I was once a chef for the Hilton Corp.   Anyways, yes, the fees are typically not set in stone. Talk with the sales person in the catering dept and let them know you have other bids, even if you really don't. Nowadays, you have to pay for certain things, especially if you want them nice. Notrhing is free anymore. I do a catering business here in the Houston area, if you are close, let me know. [e-mail]

are any of your guests staying at the hotel in question?? Are they charging you for the room which this grand event will be held?? All that is negotiable as well. Hope this helps!! :)

Answer 7

Minimums at many banquet halls and hotels are just a fact of life.  The hall wants to make a certain amount of money off your wedding.  It is a business, after all.

You may be able to negotiate, if the hall needs your business.  If you live in a big city (seeing as you are getting married in summer) they may not have any reason to negotiate with you, as they can easily find 10 other couples willing to pay their minimum.  You may have more leverage if you want to get married in winter (less popular for weddings) or if you are from an area that has a ton of wedding business and all the halls are fighting for your business.

Be prepared to negotiate, but be prepared for them to reject your offer.  In the are I live, a 20,000 minimum is nothing-you see it a lot.

If you are unhappy with the 20,000 minimum, then before you sign a contract you will regret, take your business elsewhere.

Answer 8

They expect to make a certain profit and have computed exactly how much in the way of guests they need to do so...under that and it's not worth their time.....you can try but usually minimums are firm.After all, they are a business.....good luck.

Answer 9

It will depend on whether or not they need your business, or if it will be easy to find someone else that is willing to pay the extra money.

The first poster, however, was spot-on with his advice.  Do your homework, bring in comparable quotes, and offer to use that for other services is a great advice.

Answer 10

Yes... do a little homework.

Find two comparable venues and give them the same parameters. If they come in lower, then take that back to the venue of your choice and tell them you can get a better deal elsewhere... would they be willing to match it?

If that doesn't work, the go up the food chain (no pun intended) to someone who can override the person who's telling you no changes to the minimum.

If that doesn't work and you still have your heart set on that place, see if you can use the $5K in credits toward something else... bridal suite, rooms for your family, rehearsal dinner, future stays, etc.

Hope this helps!